Three Days of Spiders
by Winter Jackson
Summary: "She was seven years old again, alone in her bedroom in Richmond, Virginia. The spiders came at night. They crawled in waves from her closet and waited in the shadows...The second night, the spiders came again...The third night, Annabeth ran away from home." -Mark of Athena, pages 247 & 248. Oneshot.


_"_It's only your imagination_, her stepmother said about the spiders._ You're scaring your baby brothers_."_

_"_They're not my brothers_, Annabeth argued, which made her stepmother's expression harden. Her eyes were almost as scary as the spiders."_

_"_Go to sleep now_, her stepmother insisited. _No more screaming_."_

_"The spiders came back as soon as her stepmother had left the room. Annabeth tried to hide under the covers, but it was no good. Eventually she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. She woke up in the morning, freckled with bites, cobwebs covering her eyes, her mouth, and nose."_

_"The bites fades before she even got dressed, so she had nothing to show her stepmother except cobwebs, which her stepmother thought was some sort of clever trick."_

_"_No more talk of spiders_, her stepmother said firmly. _You're a big girl now_."_

_"The second night, the spiders came again. Her stepmother continued to the bed cop. Annabeth wasn't allowed to call her father and bother him with this nonsense. No, he would _not_ come home early."_

_"The third night, Annabeth ran away from home."_

_-_Mark of Athena, pages 247 & 248

* * *

The First Night

* * *

"_Daddy_!" Annabeth sobbed. The spiders surrounded her, crawling up her legs, her arms, her body, trailing cobwebs, biting her. Annabeth half-sobbed, half-screamed. She wanted her father to come home, and she wanted him to come home _now_. She hid under her covers, gathering enough courage to brush the creepy things out, and then tried to pin the covers down tightly enough so that they couldn't get to her.

A bright plan for a seven-year-old, but useless. The spiders passed through the covers as if they weren't there.

Annabeth sobbed in despair. "_Daddy_!"

The door opened, and the spiders retreated instantly. Annabeth curled on her side, sobbing and hiccuping. "Annabeth?"

Her stepmother's voice. Not her daddy's.

"Annabeth? Are you okay?"

Between her hiccups and shudders and sobs, she managed to say coherently, "Spiders." _Hiccup_. "Everywhere." _Sob. _"They were all over me."

"Annabeth, they're only your imagination," her stepmother said reassuringly. "You're scaring your baby brothers."

Annabeth's thundercloud-grey eyes, already darkened from terror, hardened. "They're not my brothers."

Her stepmother's eyes hardened, and Annabeth resisted the urge to flinch. "Go to sleep now, Annie. No more screaming."

The door shut, and the spiders flooded the room from Annabeth's closet. Annabeth grabbed her pillow and sobbed in fear.

* * *

Annabeth thought she woke up, but she couldn't see very well. _I can't see. Why can't I see?_

Her fingers reached up and touched her face, and she nearly screamed again. Her eyes, mouth, and nose were covered in a thick, sticky gauze. Cobwebs.

Annabeth tore them off instantly, scared beyond belief. Her arms and legs were red and spotted from spider bites. She hurriedly got dressed, but they were gone somehow before she even got her shirt on.

Shaking, Annabeth picked up the spiderwebs that covered her face and went downstairs. She showed them to her stepmother as proof of the spiders, but she waved Annabeth off, probably thinking it was some sort of trick. "Annabeth, you're a big girl now. No more talk of spiders."

Annabeth swallowed and went to school, wanting nothing more than to get away from her stepmother and the spiders.

* * *

The Second Night

* * *

As soon as night fell, the spiders seemingly materialized. Acting on instinct, she screamed. "_DADDY_!"

Her stepmother, like the spiders, seemingly materialized at her door. The spiders, obviously only intending to hunt when the huntee is the only one around, shrunk into the shadows and into Annabeth's closet. Desparate, Annabeth clapped a cup over several of the spiders and showed them to her stepmother.

Not even really thinking about what she was saying, she blurted out everything. "Yesterday the spiders came from my closet and they bit and bit and bit and they had webs behind them and I tried to tell you but you didn't listen and then you told me to go to sleep and they came back when you went away and I don't remember what happened after that but I woke up and I couldn't see and that was because of the cobwebs I showed you and you thought it was a trick. I was going to show you the bites too but they dis-disa-_disappeared_ before I even got my shirt on and I showed you the webs but you didn't believe me so I went to school and then when dark came they came again and I trapped three in the cup and I really want Daddy to come home. Please!"

Her stepmother stood stock-still, watching the little girl ramble. "No, Annabeth, you can't call your father with this nonsense."

"_Please_!" Annabeth pleaded. "Please, can he come home?!"

"No, he will _not_ come home early, Annabeth," her stepmother said tiredly. "He has a family to support."

"But—"

"_No_, Annabeth! That is _final_!" her stepmother growled, and slammed her door shut.

She gulped as the spiders re-emerged.

* * *

The Third Night

* * *

A little girl with tangled hair and fleece pajamas climbed out her window, shaking and sobbing quietly.

"I don't mind being the bad cop, Fredrick. And Annabeth is being nuts, complaining about spiders in her room that come only when she's alone. No spider is that smart—"

"Unless it's a robot," her daddy's voice agreed.

Annabeth gasped quietly, tears running down her face.

She bolted into the woods, and hid in a crate in an abandoned RICHMOND IRONWORKS warehouse.

**A/N:**

**Little kids are the masters of run-on sentences, just so you know that the extremely long sentences that Annabeth used against her stepmother aren't exaggerated. I remember talking like that myself.**

**Again, I'd like some quotes from any book I know or characters that I know to do background on! (The ones on my profile are a fraction of the books I've read.)**

**Yours in demigodishness and all that, peace out!**

**-Winter**


End file.
